Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by Flemming Skovgaard Nielsen, BWE Paolo Danesi, BWE M.V.Radhakrishnan, BWE Energy India
January 2012
10. Single train double train ................................................................................................................... 18 11. SCR ...................................................................................................................................................... 22 12. Split ECO .............................................................................................................................................. 22 13. Controlled safety pressure relief systems (CSPRS) ............................................................................. 23 14. APH sealing system ............................................................................................................................. 26 15. Next steps in modern boiler design .................................................................................................... 28 16. Conclusion (BAT) ................................................................................................................................. 28
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Since the mid 19th century two pass boilers have been the preferred boiler design in Europe. During this period BWE has mainly supplied two pass boilers to the Danish utilities. The two pass boilers designed have been in the range from 80 MWe to 640 MWe. Since the oil crisis in the 1970s, utility boilers have all been pulverized fuel (PF) fired based on imported coal typically bituminous coals from Poland.
Figure 1: Two pass boiler Fynsvrket Unit 7 400 MW In the 1980s the market required more flexible and effective boilers with high focus on boiler efficiency, load change rate and fuel flexibility. BWE decided to introduce the tower type design
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Figure 2: Tower type boiler Nordjyllandsvrket 415MW USC The foot print of the tower type boiler will be smaller than the one of the two pass boiler. The tower type design enables a very compact design of the boiler, SCR and APH (air pre heater).
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Simple boiler suspension, penthouse not required Figure 3: Comparison table tower type versus two pass boilers
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The USC boiler operates at high efficiency resulting in lower fuel consumption for electricity generation. The combustion in the USC boilers will therefore lead to a reduced CO2 emission compared with other type of boilers. BWE has designed a number of 400 MW USC boilers which have been in operation since 1998. The data from actual operation shows a very high plant efficiency and high availability. The boilers are operated with steam parameters of 290-305 bar and 580 600 C. New USC boilers (Porto Tolle 3 x 660MWe) are being designed using steam temperatures of 600 610 C.
Plant Asnsvrket Unit 5 Year 1981 Size MWe 640 Type Two pass Country Denmark RH Cycle Single FW temp. 263 C HP pres. 190 bar HP/RH temp. 540/540 Plant Efficiency 40%
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* Avedrevrket Unit 2 and Skrbkvrket Unit 3are designed for coal but operating on NG / HFO. The calculated efficiency for Avedrevrket on coal is 48%.** Scope partly by BWE and partly by Deutche Babcock
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Figure 5: Allowable stress T91, T92, TP347HFG and TP304CuCbN When ultra super critical boilers operate, the materials after the evaporator are mostly in the creep range. Due to the elevated steam temperature, the materials operate in the creep range on the edge of what is possible. A small increase in temperature will result in a tremendous reduction of allowable stress. It is therefore essential to reduce the temperature imbalances in the boiler by correct boiler design. This is possible by a number of well proven measures as uniform flue gas profile (as result of T-firing), intermediate outlet headers, cross over of steam from left to right boiler side and extraction of main steam via four outlet headers (instead of usual only two). The furnace membrane walls are usually designed in T12 (13CrMo4-5) material for boilers up to 290 bar. Also the upper pass with vertical membrane wall is made in T12 material with design temperature up to 500 C. Such a membrane wall design using fully T12 is only possible through a detailed and careful design with focus on reduction of temperature imbalances and stress concentrations. Actual operation has shown that chemical cleaning of the evaporator after 7090.000 hours is needed. An important precondition for a proper evaporator design is a combustion system resulting in well distributed heat absorption. On the tangential fired boilers the spiral helical rotation is opposite to the combustion vortex resulting minimum temperature imbalances at spiral transition outlet.
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Figure 6: heat flux distribution resulting from tangential firing It is possible to increase the steam parameters even further by using T23 material (ASME Code case 2199). The T23 material has good creep behavior up to 550 C and does not require PWHT on smaller dimensions. T23 is developed based on T22 modified by adding mainly tungsten (W) and reducing Mo and C content. In 2009 BWE has commissioned a small Benson boiler (350 MJ/s heat input) using T23 for membrane walls. However T23 is very sensitive to deviation in welding parameters. Care must be taken in order to avoid too high hardness and low ductility in the welds and HAZ. PWHT is needed for larger dimensions. Using elevated steam parameters also requires a turbine that fits in. Adequate turbine materials and design are also important issues however not described in this article.
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Figure 7:Allowable stress SA-106 Gr.C and Wb36 ASME Code case 2353
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Double reheat
One of the obvious initiatives to increase plant efficiency is to introduce the double reheat cycle. This will increase the plant efficiency by approximately 1%. Two of the 400 MW USC boilers supplied by BWE are designed for a double reheat cycle. When boilers are designed with double reheat, it is extremely important to make accurate boiler calculations and to balance the heat absorption between the two RH parts. Even with increased cost for the turbine, for additional pipe work and for valve arrangement it might be commercially attractive to design with double reheat cycle in the near future in
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Since 1852, BWE has supplied steam generating plants for industry and power stations. It is thus one of the oldest manufacturers of steam boilers in the world. In 1955 BWE acquired a license for the Benson once-through boiler design and has since then been one of the leading companies for advanced boiler designs. The tendency in Europe is that all new boilers from 300 MWe and upwards are of the once through design. However, drum type boilers are still in the BWE portfolio since small scale boilers and specially grate fired biomass boilers with heat input 50-125 MW are still of the drum type design. The well known advantages with the once through boiler design is described below in detail. First of all once through boilers are not limited in pressure as the drum boilers where circulation is linked to the difference in water and steam density. Thus the plant cycle can be increased by increase of steam parameters above the critical point. The limitation on once through boilers is mainly linked to the selected materials for pressure part and turbine design. Furthermore when a drum boiler is designed to operate close to the critical pressure, the split between the evaporator and the super heater becomes a challenge. If no special designs are introduced, the evaporator part of the boiler often becomes too large since the membrane walls of the first pass all are designed as evaporator. When the boiler has to be designed for and is to operate with a variation of coal types available on the market, the sizing of the evaporator becomes critical. The different coals result in different heat absorptions and for drum boilers the evaporator is fixed. Once through boilers are more flexible with respect to heat absorption since the evaporation fully takes place in the furnace and superheating starts already in the membrane wall.
Benson minimum
Below a certain load called the Benson minimum load it is necessary to maintain sufficient flow through the evaporator by forced circulation. The forced circulation is established by a circulation system working either via dedicated boiler circulation pump (BCP) or via circulation through FW-tank / deaerator and FW-pumps.
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The complete coal firing systems consist of BWE Low-NOx burners, over burner air (OBA) and over fire air (OFA) systems, see Figure . The system is well proven and since 1990 more than 500 of BWE coal, bio dust, oil or gas burners have been commissioned world-wide. BWE has developed a tangential firing technique using circular burners and air staging. By inclusion of OFA, this system is extended to in-furnace air staging resulting in reduced NOx formation. The complete BWE coal firing system with tangential firing is used in the latest USC boilers in Denmark for a fuel range including coal, oil, gas and biomass.
Air staging
The principle of air staging means applying just enough air to make the combustion stable but not enough to allow the nitrogen to be oxidised to NO and NO2. The NOx formation is governed
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Figure 8: To the left: BWE coal firing system with low-NOx burners, Over Burner Air (OBA) and Over Fire Air (OFA). Excess air is typically increased from just above stoichiometry to = 1,15 1,17 by use of OFA. To the right: two off 69 MW BWE low-NOx burners with OBA in a T-fired boiler.
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Figure 9: BWE low-NOx corner burner with central gas lance, oil lance and three axial airflows: primary (PA), secondary (SA) and tertiary (TA). Suitable for multi fuel design.
The use of circular burners provides an annular airside protection against CO corrosion of the furnace walls in contrary to traditional jet burners in tangentially fired systems. This protection is enhanced by the use of the over burner air (OBA) nozzles which maintain a layer with higher stoichiometry close to the walls. For in-furnace air staging, the overall air-fuel ratio in the burner zone is reduced to just above stoichiometry ( 1.05) which results in an even better NOx-performance. Finally, the principle of air staging is extended to the whole furnace by use of over fire air (OFA). With both low-NOx burners and OFA, the NOx level is typically reduced by 60 to 70% compared to a high NOx combustion installation.
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When the T-fired furnace is considered in a cross section, it is obvious that there are no dead corners. On the other hand it is clear that front and opposed fired boilers will have dead corners at the outer burners close to the side walls.
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Figure 10: CFD calculation of a 660 MWe tangentially fired USC boiler.
It is therefore possible to operate the T-fired boiler with lower air excess without the risk of CO corrosion at the membrane walls. BWE designs T-firing system for coal combustion with air excess down to 1,15. BWE combustion system for T-firing will have over burner air (OBA) injected just above each burner. The OBA is part of the air staging and contributes to a reduction of NOx formation. Furthermore the OBA ensures sufficient oxygen content along the membrane wall and in this way protecting the membrane walls against CO corrosion. No CO corrosion is reported on Tfired boilers with a BWE combustion system installed. The T-firing concept results in a very uniform flue gas temperature profile at the outlet of the furnace. The temperature imbalance in the first heating surfaces caused by the flue gas profile is therefore reduced significantly. In USC boiler design this is essential since the materials operates in the creep range where the allowable stress is dropping fast when the temperature is increased. Front, opposed or even worst box type boilers will have high temperature peaks in the flue gas temperature profile at the furnace outlet resulting in temperature peaks in the superheater banks. By T-firing it is possible to operate with longer flames and without swirl in tertiary air sectors of the burner. Front and especially opposed fired boilers are very sensitive to variation in the coal composition and the related shape of the flame. Often it is required with heavy swirl in order to reduce the flame length. In opposed fired boilers the flames will meet at the middle of the furnace and generate NOx.
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Figure 11: 2 x 150 MWe multi fuel (coal, lean gas, oil) fired drum boilers for steel plant in India.
*If the high starting current is unacceptable, two fans can be installed still in a single air / flue gas path design.
Figure 12: Comparison table single train / mono component versus double train For the double train solution, the equipment and the duct system are arranged as two parallel flue gas paths. The components are normally arranged in a way that makes it possible to run the boiler at 60% load with one of the FD-fans out of operation. For the single train solution, the equipments and the duct system are arranged as a single flue gas path with no damper exposed to flue gas.
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Figure 13: Availability Nordjyllandsvrket 415 MW USC. The availability is calculated exclusive of planned maintenance. When calculating the availability factor of single train mono component configuration, it can be proven that the total availability of the boiler is higher than for double train and redundant systems since the risk of failure is reduced significantly. The APH is equipped with two 100% drives. The two drives can be in operation simultaneously. In case one drive fails, the other will take over.
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Figure 15: Section view boiler pressure part Porto Tolle 3x660MW arrangement of split ECO
A modern boiler is typically equipped with following valves: 100% HP Hydraulic Spring loaded bypass units with safety function (two valves) 100% + 16,5 % RH Hydraulic Spring loaded safety valves (two valves) The schematic arrangement is shown on the diagram below. With this design there will always be sufficient flow through the reheater. The RH safety valves will be designed for 100% flow from the HP- part plus a spray water flow of e.g. 16,5%. 23 | P a g e
The safety relief control unit will open the valves at the set pressure as if they were simple spring loaded safety valves. The hydraulic relief system is in line with EN Code 12952-10. The quick opening function relieves the pressure at low load and part load when the sliding pressure is exceeded by a certain margin. In this way the quick opening function avoids stagnation in the steam flow which is essential for the sufficient cooling of the super heaters and reheaters. The control operation mode is used for pressure and flow control during start up conditions. By continuous boiler operation after a turbine trip, the HP-bypass valves are controlled so that the boiler pressure is controlled and follows the sliding pressure curve.
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Figure 16: Schematic arrangement of HP-bypass and RH safety valves The safety valve design described is in line with the references of BWE and in line with the design of new USC boilers in Northern Europe.
Pipe layout
The pipe layout will be simplified due to a reduced number of branches of safety, bypass and vent valves. The amount of piping on a 660 MW unit will be reduced by approximately 50 tons of pipes and 6 large Tee-pieces all in P92. The HP-bypass valves are connected closely to the main steam line and in this way kept at sufficient temperature. The two HP-bypass valves will always operate in parallel avoiding temperature imbalances between the left and the right side of the boiler outlet. The RH safety valves will be equipped with exhaust pipes and silencers. Only the RH safety valves require a small bore heating line.
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Figure 18: Principle for APH sealing system (left side cold condition, right side hot condition) BWE has developed a very reliable sensor for the APH sealing system. The sensor can be installed in hot flue gas condition and does not need any external cooling system.
Figure 19: APH sensor The BWE sensors are installed in APH and GGH at new built power plant and retrofitted into a number of existing boilers including Avedrevrket Unit 2 (APH), Fynsvrket Unit 7 (APH), Nordjyllandsvrket (APH), Brindisi South Unit 4 (APH), Torrevaldaliga North (APH), Fusina (APH), Jorf Lasfar (GGH), Honam (GGH). 27 | P a g e
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